Ptinter Settings? Lightroom prints are TERRIBLE

Question

Hi!
I would greatly appreciate some suggestions on what I can do to resolve this problem.
I am trying out Lightroom because I am really interested in its features. However, one of the things I am running into problems with is with printing pictures. They all come out washed out, dark. I've tried several of the settings in Lightroom as well as in my printer driver (Canon MP760) and nothing seems to work. (And I've wasted a lot of ink and photo paper!)
On the other hand, other picture tools like Google's Picasa do a superb job with the printouts... and I did not have to fiddle with the printer settings at all.
I am telling Lightroom to let the printer manage color (the default setting) and in the printer driver I am using the exact same settings that I use with Picasa. It seems that Lightroom is messing around with the pictures before passing them along to the printer.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Same problem for me with a Canon Pixma IP5000 printer and Lightroom-- and for me, it wasn't just Lightroom prints-- I had the same issue as you if I used website photo printing firms-- but I was able to resolve it and get a reasonably good match of Lightroom print to monitor view. (Don't expect perfection here with the average consumer-level monitor. You'll make yourself crazy. But you can come pretty darn close.) Here's how I did it:
First, explicitly Remove any existing color calibration settings other than the one for your monitor in Windows. You may think you don't have one, but check. I'd forgotten until I checked that I had installed one for use with Paint Shop Pro photo software; it was messing me up. You remove color calibration profiles by right-clicking a blank area of your desktop, choosing Properties>Advanced>Color Management, highlighting any color profile other than the one for your monitor, and Removing it.
Then get and use a Color Vision Spyder 2 express monitor calibrator. I thought, Ah, that's silly, I can calibrate my monitor close enough for jazz using website calibration screens, but these gadgets do much better than I could at free websites and are well worth the money considering what Lightroom and other photo software AND throwaway prints cost. These calibrators are priced well under $100 shipped at websites such as amazon or newegg. I have a Sony SDM-HS95P LCD monitor, and I can't just go with the Spyder2 calibrator settings... I have to make an additional minor adjustment on my monitor of Brightness from the Sony default 50 to 10, and from Color Temperature to User Adjust>Red>101 instead of default 128, after calibrating. YMMV, of course, depending on your monitor, but the point is, you may still need to experiment and adjust a tad after calibrating to find a good match of monitor to print. Still, using a monitor calibration device helped me A LOT and I highly recommend biting the bullet and trying one, given your issue. Of course, you want to use Spyder2's color management profile as your default, that loads at bootup.
OK, on to Lightroom settings for your printer. Remember, I have a different Canon printer than you have, so again, YMMV, and you may need to make some adjustments here to what works for me, but it should still give you a good lead on how to proceed with your Canon printer. Canon printers do seem to need some custom settings compared to other brands for success in printing within Lightroom. What follows is copied from notes I keep in a .doc file on my PC for making 4x6 prints with Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy in Lightroom.
To enable borderless printing of 4x6 images, first click Page Setup on the Printer module of Lightroom to enter printer settings, and then Properties>Page Setup and check Borderless Printing. If you don't do this first before trying to set up Lightroom, Lightroom won't let you set Margins to 0.00 or do borderless printing.
Set Lightroom: Print>Print Resolution 240 dpi for 4x6, Print Sharpening>High, Color Management Profile NOT Managed by Printer, but by Canon iP5000 SP2 (SP is for Photo Paper Plus and 2 is for Quality Fine {setbelow-- to 2, to match this setting here}; if you click Other and select MP instead, that's for Matte Paper, and if you select one of the PRs, that's for Photo Paper Pro). These profiles, incidentally, get installed by the Canon Printer Driver. Rendering Intent in Lightroom should be set to Relative, not Perceptual; Relative is a better color and gamma match to monitor.
Press in Lightroom: Page Setup, Print Settings, or Print (it doesn't matter) to set Canon printer Setup as follows: Size 4x6, orientation Portrait (even for a landscape image), Source to Paper Feed Switch. Click Properties and set Main>Media Type>Photo Paper Glossy, Print Quality>Custom>Set>Quality>High>2 (this number matches the number corresponding to the paper profile you selected in Lightroom's Color Management Profile) and turn on Diffusion. OK. Color Adjustment>Manual>Intensity 17 (makes prints slightly darker to match what you see on monitor. For some prints, you have to adjust the Color Balance numbers. These changes are best made from Page Setup in Lightroom, not Print>Properties; doing it the latter way, changes often don't take, i.e., the program seems to save the changes but goes ahead and prints it unchanged(!) and restores the previous settings as if you hadn't changed them(!!). Contrary to what you might expect, do NOT turn on ICM in Manual. ICM here definitely messes things up on my Canon printer. Page Setup tab: check Borderless Printing. Move the Amount of Extension slider to second position from far left (despite Canon's recommendation; otherwise, it cuts off too much of the image-- as it is, second position from far left cuts a small amount, but far left position leaves a tiny white border in prints). Effects tab: uncheck everything, including Vivid.
More info I drew on to connect all this together is found in
http://www.steves-digicams.com/techcorner/June_2005.html
Info on Canon's paper profiles and matching monitor to printer on Canon's website, unfortunately, was unclear and inadequate for me, anyway, and judging by Adobe forums, for others as well.
Now back in Lightroom's Printer Module... On right, under Image Settings, check options: Auto Rotate to Fit, and Repeat One Photo Per Page (assuming you're printing images and not contact sheets.) (Be careful about Zoom to Fill Frame-- it cuts off a small part of the sides.) Set Margins to 0.00 and Cell size to 6.00 and 4.00; if you can't hit these settings, go back to Page Setup and recheck Borderless Printing. Scroll down on the right and set Print Job/Print Resolution to 320 dpi...
Press the key on the Pixma to pull photo paper from the top and insert photo paper glossy side up the long way.
The first time I tried printing, it wanted to print every print in the filmstrip. Look in the bottom left to see how many photos it thinks are selected. If it's all, and you want just the one image selected, don't proceed, or it will print the first image in the filmstrip. One workaround, I found, is to put the photo(s) I want printed in Quick Collection, and then I can print one, or a few.
Once you click Print, it will take awhile to set up before printing actually starts. Look in the upper left of Lightroom you can monitor the printing prep process (remember, it's converting RAW files to printable format, often, so this can be slow).